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What is media literacy?
When a single term is used across diverse domains, confusions arise. How media
literacy is defined has consequences for the framing of the debate, the research agenda and
policy initiatives. At present, definitions range from the tautological (computer literacy is
the ability to use computers) to the hugely idealistic: ‘the term literacy is shorthand for
cultural ideals as eclectic as economic development, personal fulfillment, and individual
moral fortitude’ (Tyner, 1998: 17). Nonetheless, in a key conference a decade ago, a clear,
concise and widely adopted definition emerged: media literacy – indeed literacy more
generally – is the ability to access, analyze, evaluate and create messages in a variety of
forms (Aufderheide, 1993; Christ and Potter, 1998). These four components - access,
analysis, evaluation and content creation - together constitute a skills-based approach to
media literacy. Each component supports the others as part of a non-linear, dynamic
learning process: learning to create content helps one to analyze that produced
professionally by others; skills in analysis and evaluation open the doors to new uses of the
internet, expanding access, and so forth.
For the moment, let us agree that this is a useful definition - though I argue later
that these are necessary but not sufficient components for literacy - and ask, how far is it
possible or desirable to adapt what we know of print and audiovisual media literacy in
order to map a research agenda for new forms of literacy in today’s changing media
environment?




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